John Evelyn]]> Pictorial bookplates]]> Diary, which covered Evelyn’s life from 1640 to 1706, was published in six volumes in 1955, to universal acclaim. As part of his preparation for this project, de Beer collected the works of Evelyn, many quite scarce, and if ever available, expensive. Sylva, the first publication of the then newly formed Royal Society, was Evelyn’s treatise on the practical instruction in the growth and management of trees. A popular work, it was reprinted numerous times. This is the scarce first edition.]]> John Evelyn]]> Books]]> Essay on the First Book of T. Lucretius, its first appearance in English. The frontispiece was designed by Mary, Evelyn’s wife. Evelyn had training as a draftsman and he must have given her some instruction on composition. Although the head in profile in the wreathed medallion is supposed to be Lucretius, it is, as commentators have noted, very much like Evelyn himself.]]> John Evelyn]]> Books]]> Sculptura (1662), which contained the first announcement of the art of mezzotint, and which was the first book on the history of engraving published in England. This work also contains an allegorical engraved frontispiece designed by Evelyn himself and engraved by Abraham Hertochs, the Dutch engraver. Evelyn’s seated girl represents the Graphic Arts; Geoffrey Keynes, his bibliographer, called the image ‘painfully banal’.]]> John Evelyn]]> Books]]>